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U.S. Engaging with More than 50 Jurisdictions to Curtail Offshore Tax Evasion

11/8/2012

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Treasury Continues to Build
International Support for Combating Offshore Tax Evasion and Facilitating FATCA
Implementation

WASHINGTON –
The U.S. Department of the Treasury today announced that it is engaged with
more than 50 countries and jurisdictions around the world to improve
international tax compliance and implement the information reporting and
withholding tax provisions commonly known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance
Act (FATCA). Enacted by Congress in 2010, these provisions target noncompliance
by U.S. taxpayers using foreign accounts. Treasury’s engagement with this broad
coalition of foreign governments to efficiently and effectively implement FATCA
marks an important milestone in establishing a common intergovernmental
approach to combating tax evasion.

“Global cooperation is critical to implementing FATCA in a
way that is targeted and efficient,” said Treasury Assistant Secretary for Tax
Policy Mark Mazur. “By working cooperatively with foreign governments and
financial institutions, we are intensifying our ability to combat tax evasion
while minimizing burdens on financial institutions.”

This summer, Treasury published a model intergovernmental
agreement for implementing FATCA and announced the development of a second
model agreement. These models serve as the basis for concluding bilateral
agreements with interested jurisdictions.

The Treasury Department has already concluded a bilateral
agreement with the United Kingdom. Additional jurisdictions with which Treasury
is in the process of finalizing an intergovernmental agreement and with which
Treasury hopes to conclude negotiations by year end include: France, Germany,
Italy, Spain, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Guernsey, Ireland,
Isle of Man, Jersey, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Norway.

Jurisdictions with which Treasury is actively engaged in a
dialogue towards concluding an intergovernmental agreement include: Argentina,
Australia, Belgium, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Israel,
Korea, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, Malta, New Zealand, the Slovak Republic,
Singapore, and Sweden. Treasury expects to be able to conclude
negotiations with several of these jurisdictions by year end.

The jurisdictions with which Treasury is working to explore
options for intergovernmental engagement include: Bermuda, Brazil, the British
Virgin Islands, Chile, the Czech Republic, Gibraltar, India, Lebanon, Luxembourg,
Romania, Russia, Seychelles, Sint Maarten, Slovenia, and South Africa.

The Treasury Department will continue its outreach to
interested jurisdictions that wish to consider an intergovernmental approach to
implementing FATCA, including participation in a meeting hosted by the Qatar
Central Bank in early December to provide information about FATCA and the
intergovernmental agreements to invited senior government officials and
financial institutions in the Gulf Cooperation Council.